Raypak burner noise? Now inop

[Steve C.]

Hello,

Can anybody help out please, what to check?

Raypak RP-2100 405A (c. 1995) gas analog pool heater with Robertshaw electronic igniter fired up with brand new transformer, rollout fuse, and PC board in place, after a few weeks out of use, and ran fine for about 5 minutes then we shut it off.

Next day, about 10 seconds after startup the heater started making a noise like it was coming from the burners. It sounded like the burner flames cutting off and on, kinda like the fire was flickering. No clicks, no pops, no booms, or whistling, more like a "whooshing" sound. It was easy to hear but not loud enough to startle anybody. The noise went on for maybe 45 seconds or less. I was standing right there and quick took off the front panel to look for flares or flame rollout. None that you could see.

Now the heater won't fire at all but panel on the heater unit shows the green "Call for Heat" and "Power" lights like normal operation. No red "Service" or "Pressure Hi Limit" lights.

One more weird change: the "Call for Heat" and "Power" lights stay on no matter what the temp. selector setting or "Pool Heater Off" or "On" setting at the indoor panel. In the past, the green lights on the heater unit have gone off or on according to the indoor panel settings.

Go ahead and laugh about this next part! But all the 11 years we've lived in this house, there's always been a real faint gas odor next to the heater, and the odor is still there (the house is too), so seems like the heater is getting at least some natural gas. The top of the heat exchanger -- or whatever it is inside, that you look down on from outside when the top cover is off -- was cleaned of leaves, debris, rust flakes, and anything else that would vacuum up before we switched the heater on to start with.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for any suggestions,
Steve



22,000 gallon Gunite pool with spa
Pentair Whisper-flo single stage pump
Anthony VA-52 vertical DE filter, current pressure 20-22 lbs. Hair-and-lint pot clean.
Temp 78° F
Cl2 5 ppm
pH 7.3
T.A. 80

[waste]

Welcome to The Forum!

This sounds like a gas issue. Call your gas company NOT the pool company! Have them test the feed to the unit and adjust it as necessary. THIS IS NOT SOMETHING TO TRY TO FIX YOURSELF (unless you are a qualified gas dude and virtually none of the pool dudes are properly qualified, myself included) - there is a large chance of blowing something up if you don't know what you're doing.

If this is a propane heater - check the gauge on the tank, if it's below 20, you may just need to refill the tank, heaters get balky under 20.

Good luck with this, please get the proper person to identify and fix the problem and let us know how it goes.